FUNHOUSE

an Interactive Book Fair

Press Release

On the weekend of March 24 – 25, Desert Island and The Drawing Center will present FUNHOUSE, a new, interactive book fair at which guests can make their own books in collaboration with resident cartoonists and illustration artists.

FUNHOUSE guests will interact with resident artists to create unique pages for one-of-a-kind books to be assembled at the fair. The resident artists will also have their own publications available for purchase at General Store within the FUNHOUSE fair, with games of chance, author signings, special activities, and giveaways of artists’ books. A SIDESHOW of talks, lectures, and presentations will be organized by FORGE. art magazine’s Matthew James-Wilson. Additional spectacles, like life-size interactive cut-outs and funhouse mirrors will provide wacky fun and photo-ops galore!

SIDESHOW All sideshow events are included in ticket price, $10 via Eventbrite. Proof of purchase, from either day, is needed.

SATURDAY, MARCH 24

Saturday at 11:30amDIY or Die!(with Xia Gordon, Leslie Lasiter, and Kurt Woerpel)Included in ticket price. Please RSVP here.Three creatives discuss the dynamic world of do-it-yourself publishing! Comic creator Xia Gordon, curator/historian Leslie Lasiter of Printed Matter, and publisher Kurt Woerpel of TXTbooks will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of DIY for their practice. Each panelist will give a different perspective, sharing insight about their personal experiences with publishing-as-art.

Saturday at 1:30pmSideshow Variety Hour(with Sarah Lammer, John Mejias, and Matthew Thurber)Included in ticket price. Please RSVP here.Step right up to a three-part variety show featuring performances by cartoonists Sarah Lammer, John Mejias, and Matthew Thurber! Matthew Thurber will summon Mrs. William Horsely in an abstract puppet show, Sarah Lammer will enter The Mind of a Pen with a live video drawing experience, and John Mejias will perform I'm Wurried, a 3-D shadow puppet performance based on interviews with children about their worries.

Saturday at 3:30pmPolice Sketch GameIncluded in ticket price. Please RSVP here.An interactive drawing game where the audience helps three exhibitors from the show identify the perpetrator of a crime. The audience will be shown an image of a criminal and will be tasked with giving clues to each artist as they try to sketch a portrait. After the audience shouts out enough details about the criminal’s appearance, the artist will reveal their portrait of the criminal, seeing how it matches up against the original photo.

SUNDAY, MARCH 25

Sunday at 11:30amIn the Director’s Chair(with Steph Davidson, Walter Green, and Hannah K. Lee)Included in ticket price. Please RSVP here.Three art directors discuss the ever-changing illustration industry. Steph Davidson of Bloomberg, Walter Green of Lucky Peach, and Hannah K. Lee of The New York Times will reflect on their experiences working as art directors and how they’ve worked to push the boundaries within their industry. The three will give a closer look into choosing artists for publication and where they see the medium heading in the near future.

Comic Zine WorkshopsSaturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25, 12:30–4:30pmTickets $40 via Eventbrite here, include the workshop and access to the fair.kuš! comic zine workshops, lead by artist Oskars Pavlovskis from Riga, Latvia, will be a collaborative comic drawing experience suited for participants of any age and skill level. The workshop will focus on the creation of short experimental comic stories based around the FUNHOUSE theme. Together the participants will take part in creating a unique self-published comic zine, which will be printed and assembled during the workshop and each participant will receive a copy.